An interview on guardian.co.uk hears from Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, who discusses the French game developer/publisher's take on the future of digitally distributed games. He discusses cross platform games and the next generation of consoles, and says that they will be developing fewer "bigger" games going forward, though they may also be experimenting more with smaller projects:

With next gen consoles, it's going toward bigger games, and yes, we will make less of them. But with free-to-play games, the teams aren't as big so we can try different things and find subjects that are of interest to consumers. We announced Mighty Quest for Epic Loot last week, and we are announcing new types of games. This new environment is actually giving us the chance – because we're reaching new consumers – to develop new types of game brand and experience. What I like about the FTP model is that you are with your consumers all the time – you can spend six months refining the gameplay and then put it in another environment, another title, because you automatically know it works well.

HorrorScope wrote on Sep 13, 2012, 20:49:Gaming has been basically going nowhere. That creates grumpy people at BluesNews. We all love games, they just become stale and corporate gaming has done little to move things forward, they get stuck in a rut.

Since my discovery of indie games a few years ago, i stopped being grumpy. I just ignore the games the majors make and i live happily ever after

Totally encompassed head-ware, that makes you feel you are really in the world.

Gaming has been basically going nowhere. That creates grumpy people at BluesNews. We all love games, they just become stale and corporate gaming has done little to move things forward, they get stuck in a rut. Almost all are terribly run, see:

Great, they are having to fly under the radar to reduce the flak from their original consumers. They have to find new ones because the old ones hate their guts..We don't care Ubi, we will be happy when you make 0 games and are a part of history, which you will soon be. We are enjoying the scene of your gasping for air.

Steam says I have 238 games. Ubisoft has 100 games listed on Steam, yet "Beyond Good and Evil" is the only one of their products blighting my account. So by all means please make fewer aaa games. That will eventually free up developers for games I might actually enjoy.

" What I like about the FTP model is that you are with your consumers all the time – you can spend six months refining the gameplay and then put it in another environment, another title, because you automatically know it works well."

Translation: We are going to find a F2P that makes a profit and reskin it into 20 other versions so we don't have to do any other work on it yet have 20 F2P games to sell! You like zombies? Here's a reskin of our castles F2P. You like Space ships? Here's a reskin of our zombies F2P.

Cutter wrote on Sep 13, 2012, 13:23:How guys like this ever get to be in charge of anything boggles the mind.

Having the right social contacts, having the right university diploma and being in the right fraternities, having the right "social scent", not being a filthy upstart and newcomer, originating from the right families.

To get a job as a CEO is very, very easy when you are born in the wealthy part of the city. Social transition is still very weak, classes still exist and influence our daily life.

How true. I remember when I was working corporate and our new North American VP of operations came by. The guy was all of 26 and a Wharton MBA with zero real world experience, but word around the campfire was his family were mucky mucks with our CEO.

Cutter wrote on Sep 13, 2012, 13:23:How guys like this ever get to be in charge of anything boggles the mind.

Having the right social contacts, having the right university diploma and being in the right fraternities, having the right "social scent", not being a filthy upstart and newcomer, originating from the right families.

To get a job as a CEO is very, very easy when you are born in the wealthy part of the city. Social transition is still very weak, classes still exist and influence our daily life.

How true. I remember when I was working corporate and our new North American VP of operations came by. The guy was all of 26 and a Wharton MBA with zero real world experience, but word around the campfire was his family were mucky mucks with our CEO.

“That's it. You people have stood in my way long enough. I'm going to clown college!”

Trevellian wrote on Sep 13, 2012, 10:02:They thought the trash they've been releasing was still considered AAA? What planet do they live on. With the exception of the Assassin's Creed series they honestly haven't made anything AAA

A lot of crappy console games are considered AAA. Thing there are a lot less AAA titles made already.

reisub wrote on Sep 13, 2012, 10:08:The term AAA just means the budget is so high, if the game doesn't sell a bazzilion copies then the publisher takes a massive financial hit.

That's close to my definition of AAA. To me "AAA Game" more often than not signifies a game with ridiculous, out-of-control production costs with utterly massive advertising budgets. It has almost nothing to do with quality any more. That's not to say that there haven't been some "AAA" games released in recent years that I loved; but nowadays to me slapping the "AAA" tag on a game description doesn't mean anything beyond "we threw a boatload of money at this and if it doesn't sell huge we're sunk".

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Cutter wrote on Sep 13, 2012, 13:23:How guys like this ever get to be in charge of anything boggles the mind.

Having the right social contacts, having the right university diploma and being in the right fraternities, having the right "social scent", not being a filthy upstart and newcomer, originating from the right families.

To get a job as a CEO is very, very easy when you are born in the wealthy part of the city. Social transition is still very weak, classes still exist and influence our daily life.